Tuesday, 26 June 2012

Most of my blog readers are probably aware that I occasionally write novels that no agent or publisher has yet had the foresight or cojones to take on. Which doesn't mean the book is no good, of course, it just means it's not right for that particular agent/publisher/whatever. Three or four years ago, I spent an awful lot of time on a website for aspiring writers called authonomy.com. It's owned by publishers HarperCollins, and I made lots of great friends there, learnt lots about writing, and garnered a ton of feedback for the book I was promoting at the time: Tybalt & Theo.

Since then, I've been busy with other projects, and the writing has had to take a back seat - somebody suggested the other day it was on the back-burner, but I had to reply it wasn't even on the stove. I've also seen the traditional publishing industry decline more and more in the face of the rapid rise of eBooks. Most of my buddies from the Authonomy days have taken the self-pub eBook route, and several of them have done extremely well.

So, I decided to take the plunge. I know I have a well-written, funny and entertaining book, based on some of the great reviews it had on Authonomy, so it would be churlish not to share it with the rest of the planet. I might even make a few Euros from it. So, Tybalt & Theo: A Time-Travelling Lark is now available for Kindle in all Amazon markets. And if you don't have a Kindle (I don't), you can get the Kindle app for your smartphone or iPad.

Here's the book pitch:

Theo is a merchant banker in recession-hit 2008. Tybalt is a condemned criminal in 1608. In a freak accident, they exchange places.

Theo has just lost 97 million pounds that wasn't his. It belonged to his bank. The global finance industry is in meltdown. Unemployment looks imminent.

A chance accident sends him hurtling towards certain death at Newgate Underground station, but instead of the afterlife he finds himself in 1608.

At the same time, Tybalt finds himself propelled forward to 2008 into a world quite beyond his understanding. He discovers the dubious delights of fast food, appears on stage at the Globe and completely fails to find his good friend Will Shakspere.

Back in 1608, Theo finds himself almost hanged for stealing a loaf of bread, lined up to assassinate King James, and building himself a new life.

Can Tybalt and Theo find the way back to their own times? And, more to the point, will they want to?

It's jolly good fun, and you can buy it for less than the price of a pint from these places:

Tuesday, 5 June 2012

As someone who works with computer technology every single day, designing marvellous websites (like English Warehouse, for example) AND doing the invisible programming that makes them work, I sometimes feel like a bit of a Luddite because I rarely feel the urge to jump onto whatever the latest bandwagon is. Spotify? Heard of it, but never joined. Instagram? I can do that stuff with Photoshop if I want. Pinterest? Heard of it, but never joined.

I am on Facebook, every day, and Twitter as little as possible (there's just TOO MUCH stuff going on there, it's impossible to keep up: I do have a life, you know).

But some of these online thingies are useful, and last weekend we had cause to use one of them. We'd spent a heavy day shopping, and needed dinner pretty much immediately. We were in a barrio that was new to us, so I pulled out my VeryCleverPhone, and searched Google Maps for restaurants near us. It came up with about 10, and several had customer reviews attached. We decided on the one we wanted, and clicked on 'get walking directions' to see the route superimposed on the map. And, of course, as we walked the route, the GPS kept moving the little blue arrow so we knew we were headed in the right direction. Pretty cool eh? But of course you know this is all possible. Four or five years ago, it really wasn't possible.

An aside: we've lived in Tetuan for about 3.5 years. and I never knew we had a massive shopping mall (La Vaguada) very close by (10 mins on the 49 bus, or a brisk half-hour walk). MamaDuck said she knew it was there but never mentioned it because we spent half our life in Dubai in shopping malls, and she didn't think I'd ever want to see another one. I explained she was wrong, and we spent most of last weekend there.